Haywarduck

I trust Lanning to make a very good choice here, and make any adjustments needed on the defensive side of the ball. We have seen how he can bring in some amazing coaches. The next OC will likely be have the same result, as long as he has good qb mentoring skills. I am more concerned, or interested in what he does with the defense. We haven't seen him deal with what seems like disfunction in a coaching group. Maybe he just needs his players, but the defense is the one I will be interested to see the moves within.

I am also interested in the fine OSU gets for letting fans on the field. If the beav program gets a free pass then the Pac-12 needs new leadership. This is a test for Lanning, and I am sure he will do just fine. He has these young mens best interest in mind, and under great guidance. This is also a player who has been a great team player, just made a big mistake. Not his first time losing his temper, once against WSU if I remember correctly. Does anyone remember what happened in that situation? Seems like Dan was going to review that one and deal with it internally? This is also a test of the Pac-12 and their leadership. I am not so sure about that leadership, we will see.

I think every team is just organized disarray. What we saw was some of that organization coming apart. I would also say Lanning is becoming head coach at Oregon at a time when the head coaches at our rivals have been upgraded in a major way. One team has an amazing qb, and the other just one of those teams they will have every 4-5 years. Bottomline each rival is going to be a major hurdle each year, not just an easy win. It should be fun to watch how Lanning deals with this chaos, his first really big challenge. What will he do about the defense? Also what will he do about Dilly leaving, and in my opinion Dilly's distraction from the program? The player discipline is minor, but another hurdle, and unfortunate, for a player who did so much, really anything, for Oregon during his time here.

Not sure, but Dilly doesn't seem to be able to run an offense when considering being a head coach. I would be very suspect leaving Oregon for ASU when he would be needing to actually be a head coach. We saw a similar scenario with our head coach leaving last year. MariØ started thinking about his next stop and the program went into a tailspin. His next stop has continued that disarray. Lanning on the other hand pulled off a beautiful ending to his assistant career, and then flourished until his recent difficulties. If I was a recruit, or player who was improving '1%' at a time, I would go to Oregon or stay put. My bet is those on the fringe might consider it, but most players are at Oregon for Dan Lanning and the program he is building.

I have been saying we are in the honeymoon period for a while. Lanning could do no wrong, and he brought back so much we had missed so dearly, longed for really. We could beat teams we were suppose too. The offense scored over 40 per game, the downfield pass was resurrected. Many were enamored with the trick play happening, once again! There wasn't havoc on defense, but we won with something familiar, the prevent defense, but the prevent offense is just a distant nightmare. These losses are like when the honeymoon is over and the significant other farts for the first time. 'You mean you aren't perfect?' We had forgotten we hired a coach who had only been head coach of a third grade basketball team, although he said they were, 'damn good.' He was bound to have these bumps in the road as he becomes more than a guy who had coached a bunch of third graders. I was thrilled he could beat BYU, pull of a win in Pullman, and reach so many other metrics we knew were part of Oregon's DNA. I do get it, beating the dawgs and the beavs are critical elements of Oregon's makeup too. Dan has to work on that and some other things. The big thing is he just stumbled, but he is ours, and hopefully we will stay his as long as possible. We recently found out Dan Lanning is human, but as you stated, the future is bright, just not a honeymoon forever, but what is.

Tennesse was fined $100,000 for allowing their fans storm to the field. OSU should be fined. My favorite player should have consequences too. I was actually surprised there wasn't more trouble with what I saw being said by the fans. There is a reason the fans need to stay off the field!

We loss to an underrated team, in a rivalry game, at their house. We didn't lose to a team we should have crushed. We also have a top recruiting class, along with a very good chance at winning a bowl game. If you had told me we would be 9-3, didn't lose to anyone we shouldn't have at the start of the season, I would have taken that. I am also excited to see many components of what I value as an Oregon fan. I think the future is extremely bright, as long as Lanning is our head coach. Tonight the better team won, congrats to the beavs.

Defense wins games, and defense loses games. Our defense was horrible! Special teams looked like an extension of our defense. We are going to run the ball, with our back-up RB, try and stop us.

'Let's keep beating this dead horse,' said no one, even respectively. The name of the game is like a mullet, it will go away, but some will still think it is cool. Much like a mullet everyone will still know what it is, nothing will truly replace it. As time goes on, like a mullet, some will be able to keep it going, and pull it off, but it will still be a mullet, not really cool.

Great article, I look for Lanning to, once again, be extremely involved in the defense. This beav team plays into our strengths, if Lanning can make sure the players unite on defense to bring down the vaunted beav running game. I also think this is another challenge for Dilly against a defense I hope he has spent enough time studying. A great coach like Dilly should be able to bring the beav defense down a few notches. I hope it happens before the start of the third quarter, but we need to get that two possession lead so Lanning can then flex his game clock management skills. This has been one of the most exciting new developments of the Lanning coaching era. We now have a coach who knows how to win a game going away. Nothing too cute, just execute!

Agree no need to throw group shade while keeping that a wonderful story, and tribute to a bygone era. Love to read more stories about those glory years. So much can be learned from competition and football specifically. This is a place where we should all be modest and unassuming. We all have something to contribute, share and build greater understanding off of, even if we don't happen to agree, actually most often because we don't agree. Great thread where we continue to learn about football and how it is done here.

Oregon's program seems to be working out, however it is put together. Agree with the assessment, interest in the program, and coaches needs to happen first. The Texas ATM method of money first is a colossal failure, so far. A play on Matayo might bring in some interesting dividends. Since we are connecting invisible lines, that possible connection might be the most intriguing. I also think bringing Gonzo paid off big. Going hard at elite talent from stumbling programs seems to warrant the price. You never know how talent, A SPARC number, translates to the football field. After a couple seasons coaches know who they don't want to face on the opposing side. I could see where players become targets when their college numbers rise above their programs success. Parents and student athletes know they could make more money and have more success if they hit the portal after a couple good years. This could be a positive of the transfer portal and NIL for college football, at least the elite schools and successful kids.

Not worried one bit if Dilly leaves. Lanning will bring in the next Dilly, and he might be even better. I mean who wouldn't want to take over the Oregon offense, and I am sure Lanning knows a couple guys on speed dial, is that still a thing, ready to go. I do wonder about Dilly, but everyone thinks this time will be different, and maybe it will be. My bet, Oregon will be better off in the end than Dilly. Not saying Dilly won't cash some good checks. For Dilly it has been over 25 years since ASU has lost less than 3 games. At the same time the program hasn't been too tolerant about losing seasons. Agree with most the challenge, home school, and of course the money will add up to a huge draw, too big to keep him at Oregon.

With MariØ's legendary thick skin he will be just fine. With how brilliant Phil Knight is I almost wonder if the contract he put in front of MariØ was just a good bye present. He knew MariØ was gone, and just wanted him to make a bit more money. Whatever happened Miami got what they wanted and deserved.

I like what you said about percentages, and risks, two things which need to be taken in consideration. Agree completely, youth look at those two items completely differently. One of the life lesson I taught my boys, and they have survived their teen years mostly intact, is when somebody says 'watch this' get away, get out of the car, and run as fast as possible. I almost expect to be able to lip read Lanning and Dilly saying these two most dangerous words a young person can hear before each play mentioned, 'watch this!' I get it some pretty cool things happen when people do stupid things. It can be inspiring, funny, and memorable, but it doesn't need to happen on the football field with our Ducks. We all hope we don't read about one of those college football player moments, off the field, when someone says watch this. Unfortunately we are seeing a few on the field, by our coaches. It is time to consider the percentages a bit more, and evaluate the risks reward equation like a seasoned veteran coach would. There is no reason the team can't have fun, not the issue. As smart as Lanning is I see this happening soon, I just hope it happens soon enough.

Agree and then have him toss a ball to a guy who needs to work on ball handling, really? I am a big fan of Dante, but he should only be given a ball as he is creating separation from the defense, until he fixes his ball handling difficulties. One of the jobs of the coaches is to put players in position to succeed. Neither player was put in a position to succeed. Maybe if Ty had kept the ball and ran it, a good hit tends to help warm up a qb. I think Ty could put the hurt on a DB, and that may be just what he needs. Who knows what he needs, but that hasn't been tried yet.

Agree it was an ugly win, but we did learn a few things, hopefully. Number one, Thornton is a lethal weapon, who needs to work on his hands this offseason. The guy gets separation extremely easily, but I am still waiting for him to cleanly catch a ball. His juggling catches could actually be lethal with some sure handedness. He also needs to work on how he carries the ball, fumbles kill momentum, and he is a fumble waiting to happen. We also learned that trick plays are like magic. I should say trick plays should be like magic. Magic leaves you wondering how they made that happen. You want more, and with the most recent magic trick we have realized the limits of our magician. I hope Dan also realizes his limits. We don't need another bad magic act. We also learned late season rankings mean something, and early season rankings not so much. When you play a #3 Georgia, they could actually be a #1 juggernaut. Also when you play a #12 BYU you might just be playing a team which barely beats Utah Tech at home later in the season. This weekend we play a team who deserved to be ranked all season, at home. We had better take them seriously, they deserve to be ranked even higher, and want to be. Lastly we learned our cool, cold blooded, brilliant coach can show some fire. Seeing Lanning fire up our defense is something I was happy to see. In the future I want to see more of that fire, and less of the magic act. At least work on the act a bit more before bringing it out to show the crowd, and at a better time, timing is everything.

Championship game and then the bowl game, they will all be big. The beav game will set us up to keep the big ones coming, agree. In a weird way I am ok with losing to the dawgs, and then keeping them out of the championship game with a defeat of the beavs. They can keep their delusional greatness while spending time at home. I still wouldn't mind seeing the dawgs lose to the cougs, but it is couging it season.

No words

Why does the Pac-12 continue to allow themselves to be at a disadvantage by sticking by our 9 game conference schedule? If we really want to create change we should go to a 7 game conference schedule and see how the SEC reacts. Bottomline we should stop complaining about something we aren't doing anything about. Maybe bring New Mexico State into the Pac with the understanding all they can do is play Pac teams. Now that would throw a wrench into the SEC scheduling.

I hope all the bad luck is gone for Cam. He could have a decent NFL career. The TE position is incredibly important in the NFL and he has that talent level. I will always remember a few plays from Cam. The catch against tosu, and that tackle last night. I hope he has another great moment against the beavs coming up. Such a exceptional person, deserves anything he achieves going forward.

One has to believe Ty practiced that play dozens of times. I just wonder how come game time he just can't get it right? Repeatedly Ty runs a play Nix would have pulled off seamlessly. Ty as a Duck is baffling. That play call for a guy who really hasn't had one play work well this season was definitely a head scratcher.

Exactly what I thought I saw. When the defense came to the sideline during a timeout Tosh could barely get a word in. Lanning was in every defensive players earhole. Dan is a great head coach. He seems to be able to delegate, and step to the side when things are working out. I don't think he interjects too much in the offensive play calling. On the defensive side of the ball, he was all over the game last night.

Agree, just a senior message, and his intention all along has been to leave after this season. As a running qb, the CFL may be his best choice, if the NFL doesn't work out.